Magnetic shifting register



Sept. 6, 1960 J. F. MARCHAND 2,952,009

MAGNETIC SHIFTING REGISTER Filed June 17, 1958 INVENTOR JEAN FRANgOlS MARCHAND States atent ice 2,952,009 MAGNETIC sHiFTiNG REGISTER Jean Francois Marchand, Eindhoven, Netherlands, assiguor to Nrtli American Philips Company, Inc., New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Filed June 17, 1958, Ser. No. 742,651 Claims priority, application Netherlands July 9, 1957 4 Claims. (Cl. 340-174) This invention relates to a magnetic shifting register. Such shifting registers may, for example, be used in electronic computers for recording information in binary code or as delay registers.

A magnetic shifting register comprising a first and a second series of cores of magnetic material having a rectangular hysteresis loop is known, in which the cores of each series are inductively coupled to two successive cores of the other series. Provision is made of means for transferring the magnetic information from the cores of the first series to the next higher core of the second series under the control of a shifting pulse of a first pulse train and for subsequently transferring the magnetic information from the cores of the second series to the next subsequent core of the first series under the control of a shifting pulse of a second pulse train.

In these known arrangements, each core is generally provided with at least three windings: two windings for coupling a core to two cores of the other series and one winding through which the shifting pulses are applied. An arrangement is also known in which in principle only two windings are needed on each core owing to the fact that the winding for applying the shifting pulses is combined with one of the coupling windings.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement in which the required number of windings can be further reduced.

According to the invention, in a magnetic shifting register, means are provided for alternately applying shifting pulses of a certain polarity to a first winding and shifting pulses of opposite polarity to a second winding on a number of cores of a first series. The second winding of each core is connected, together with the first winding of the next core, in series with a similar winding of an intermediate core of a second series; the said second windings contain more turns and the said first windings less turns than the windings on the cores of the second series.

In order that the invention may readily be carried out, one embodiment thereof will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 shows a shifting register comprising a first series of cores A, C, E and G and a second series of cores B, D and F, each core being made of.magnetic material having a rectangular hysteresis loop; and Fig. 2 shows an idealized diagram of a rectangular hysteresis loop.

The cores A, C, E and G are each provided with a first winding WAI, WCl, WE1 and WGl and with a second winding WA2, WC2, WE2 and WG2, respectively, while the cores B, D and F are each provided with one winding WB, WD and WP, respectively. The windings WB, WD and WE are connected at one end through a lead K2 to a terminal of a shifting pulse generator GR and at their other ends connected in series with the windings WA2 and WCl, WC2 and WEI, WEZ and WGI, which latter windings are connected, through rectifiers GA2, GCl, G62, GEI, GE2 and GGl and a lead K1, to the other terminal of the generator GR. The turns number of the windings WB, WD and WF is smaller than that of windings WA2, WC2 and Wm, but greater than that of winding WCl, WEI and WGl. All the cores can have two diiferent states of magnetic remanence 1 and 0, as is shown in Fig. 2. The dots provided in the drawing adjacent the various windings denote in known manner the ends of the windings to which a positive current must be supplied in order to bring the cores into the state 1.

This arrangement operates as follows. It is assumed that at a certain instant a certain information is registered in the first series of cores, cores A, C, E and G being in states 1, l, 0 and 0 respectively, while the cores B, D and F are in the state 0. The cores may, for example, be brought into these states by applying pulses to auxiliary windings (not shown) provided on the cores or by registering this information successively through the winding WAl in the shifting register. At' the next subsequent positive pulse of the generator GR, at which the lead K1 is positive with respect to the lead K2, a number of circuits are produced through the rectifier GA2 and the windings WA2 and WB, through the rectifier GCZ and the windings WC2 and WD, through the rectifier GE2, the winding WEZ and a further circuit, as the case may be. The impedance of these circuits is substantially determined by the impedance of the windings WA2, WC2 and WEZ, since these windings comprise more turns than the other windings. The cores A and C are in the state 1. Hence, these cores are further driven into saturation by the pulses and consequently the variation 'of their magnetic induction is very slight so that the impedance of the windings WA2 and WC2 has a comparatively low value. As a result, the current through these windings and the windings WB and WD can increase to a value such that the critical Valle Hc of the field strength H in the cores B and D is exceeded and these cores pass to the state 1. However, it was assumed that the core E is in the state 0. Thus, under the control of the shifting pulse, the core E passes to the state 1 with a resultant comparatively large variation of the magnetic induction in this core B, so that the winding WE2 has a comparatively high inductance and the current through this winding and the winding WF is restricted to so low a value that the magnetic field strength in the core F remains below the critical value iHC and this core remains in the state 0. At the end of the shifting pulse, the cores A, C, E and G are in the state 1, the cores of the second series B and D are also in the state 1 and the core F in the state 0. Thus, the information which originally was registered by the cores A, C, and E, is now transferred to the cores B, D and F.

At the next subsequent negative shifting pulse, current paths are similarly produced through the series combinations of the windings WB, WCI and the rectifier GCl, of the windings WD and WEI and the rectifier G151 and of the windings WP and WGl and the rectifier GG1, the impedance in these circuits now being determined substantially by the windings WB, WD and WF, since these windings have a higher number of turns than the windings WCl, WlEl and WGl. On the application of the negative pulse the cores B and D are restored to the state 0, the windings WB and WD offering a comparatively high impedance owing to the fact that the magnetic induction in the cores B and D is greatly changed. As a result, the current through the windings WCI and WEI is limited so that the cores C and E cannot change their states and remain in the state 1. The core F is driven further into tion is shifted one place to the right in the series of cores A, C, E and G. If required, new information is registered in the core A during the negative shifting pulse. Without departing from the scope of the invention, the arrangement can be modified in various manners; the number of cores may, for example, be increased as required, while the shifting pulses of opposite polarities may be derived from separate pulse generators.

What is claimed is:

1. A magnetic shift register comprising: a first and a second series of cores composed of a magnetic material having a substantially rectangular hysteresis loop, a first winding and a second winding coupled to each core of said first series, a sole winding coupled to each core of said second series, each sole winding being connected in series with the second Winding of a preceding core of said first series and in series with the first winding of a succeeding core of said first series, and means for alternately applying pulses of opposite polarity to the series combinations of sole and first windings and sole and second windings, respectively.

2. A shift register as set forth in claim 1, wherein each second Winding has more turns and each first winding has less turns than each sole winding.

3. A magnetic shift register comprising: a first and a second series of cores composed of a magnetic material having a substantially rectangular hysteresis loop, a first winding and a second winding coupled to each core of said first series, a sole winding coupled to each core of said second series, each sole winding being connected in series with the second winding of a preceding core of said first series and in series with the first winding of a succeeding core of said first series, an alternating current generator connected across said series combinations of sole and first windings and sole and second windings, and rectifiers connected in series with said first and second windings respectively, said rectifiers having a polarity such that pulses of opposite polarity are alternately applied to said first and second windings.

4. A shift register as set forth in claim 3, wherein each second winding has more turns and each first winding has less turns than each sole winding.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS An Wang May 17, 1955 Kun Li Chien Mar. 5, 1957 OTHER REFERENCES 

